The Cotton Road

Abstract Cotton is one of the most culturally significant crops in Central Asia today, and it has a complex history, long predating the collective-labour and intensive-irrigation systems of the Soviet period. In this paper, we explore the ancient history of cotton cultivation in Central Asia. We aim to understand when cotton cultivation switched from low-investment to intensive large-scale agriculture and to theorise about the dispersal routes, type of cotton cultivated, and processing systems that existed before the introduction of hybrid forms of cotton from the Americas in the nineteenth century. We incorporate new archaeobotanical data, historical-linguistic evidence and archaeological materials into our discussion. Furthermore, we provide an overview of archaeobotanical evidence from across Europe, Asia and North Africa, aiming to assess common trends in the spread of cotton.